Semiconductor Devices

Semiconductor device models in Simscape Electronics™ are used for system-level analysis, and help you refine the requirements for your design. You can select the model variant and parameterization that meet your needs.

Temperature-Dependent Behavior in Semiconductors

You can enable temperature-dependent behavior in the Simscape Electronics semiconductor device models. This lets you specify how the device behavior changes with temperature, and model heat generation within the device. An additional thermal port is added to the block so you can model heat transfer between the device and the environment. You connect this port to thermal models in the Simscape Foundation library.

Driver Models

Simscape Electronics includes abstract models of motor driver circuits, such as H-Bridge and stepper motor drivers, to accelerate the modeling and simulation of actuation systems. You can use these models to refine the requirements for drive circuits. You can run your simulation in PWM mode or averaged mode, enabling you to incorporate or neglect the effect of drive circuit switching on your system.

Motor driver models in Simscape Electronics (left) with plots of simulation results (right). Driver models can be configured to include or neglect drive circuit switching.

Temperature-Dependent Behavior in Actuators

You can enable temperature-dependent behavior in the Simscape Electronics actuator models. This lets you model how the actuator behavior changes with temperature and model heat generation within the actuator. An additional thermal port per winding is added to the block so that you can model heat transfer between each winding and the environment. You connect this port to thermal models in the Simscape Foundation library.

Model of motor and drive including heat transfer to heat sink and environment.

Passive and Active Devices

Simscape Electronics enables you to model electronic and mixed-signal systems. You can integrate passive, active, and logic devices into your system-level model.

Passive Devices

Simscape Electronics provides linear and nonlinear passive device models, including resistors, inductors, and switches. Physical effects are included, such as temperature dependence of a lamp and saturation in inductors. You can also specify operating limits and apply tolerances to parameter values, which enables you to incorporate realistic behavior into your simulation.

Op-Amps

Simscape Electronics provides abstract, non-ideal models of op-amps that simulate quickly and produce similar behavior to models that use a detailed transistor implementation. These behavioral models require far fewer parameter values and enable testing of much larger circuits in less time. You can use them to select circuit parameters to avoid nonlinear effects such as power rail and slew rate limiting during normal circuit operation.

Op-amp component models (top) and example application model (bottom).

Logic Gates

Simscape Electronics provides behavioral models of logic gates. These abstract models require far fewer parameters and simulate faster than detailed models that use a detailed transistor implementation. Logic gates such as CMOS AND, CMOS NOR, set-reset latch, and Schmitt Trigger are included. You can use these models to select architectures for digital circuits.

Logic component models (top) and example application model (bottom).

Faults and Losses

Simscape Electronics enables you to verify the robustness of your design. You can inject faults throughout your electrical network and automatically analyze the power dissipated by components in your design.

Introducing Faults

You can introduce faults into your Simscape Electronics models. You can specify the conditions under which components should fail, such as when a current limit is exceeded. You can also specify how the device should behave after failure, such as an open circuit or short circuit. You can use MATLAB scripting to automate the configuration of faults, which enables you to efficiently validate your system against a full set of fault conditions.

Component with integrated fault parameterization (left) and generic Fault block (right). The generic Fault block lets you inject faults between any nodes in your circuit, triggered externally or based on circuit conditions.

Measuring Switching Losses

Simscape Electronics models enable you to calculate the power dissipated by electrical components. This helps you verify that circuit components are operating within their working envelopes. You can perform this calculation at any level of your design, incorporating individual or sets of components. The analysis can be run automatically using MATLAB code to cover specific events within a single simulation or on sets of test scenarios.

Power loss calculation performed with a single command in MATLAB (bottom) for a solar power converter model (top).

Simscape Platform

Simscape is the platform for all Simscape add-on products. In addition to the Foundation libraries, it provides much of the core technology for modeling and simulating physical systems in all domains.

Modeling with Physical Connections

Simscape components represent physical elements, such as pumps, motors, and op-amps. Lines in your model that connect these components correspond to physical connections in the real system that transmit power. This approach lets you describe the physical structure of a system rather than the underlying mathematics. Electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, and other physical connections are represented in your multidomain schematic by lines whose color indicates their physical domain. You can see right away which systems are in your model and how they are connected to one another.

Explore Gallery (2 images)

Simscape Platform Capabilities

Simscape Electronics is based on Simscape, which provides much of the core technology and capabilities necessary for modeling and simulating electronic and mechatronic systems. Simscape enables you to:

Simscape Product Family

The Simscape family of products consists of six products that cover many applications. You can combine any set of the Simscape add-on products with the Simscape platform to model multidomain physical systems. The add-on products include more advanced blocks and analysis methods.

Testing Without Hardware Prototypes

Simscape Electronics models enable you to test embedded control algorithms and controller hardware without using hardware prototypes. In addition to software-in-the-loop (SIL) and processor-in-the-loop (PIL) tests, converting your Simscape Electronics models to C code lets you run hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) tests. This enables you to test embedded controllers without endangering equipment and personnel, and increases your confidence that the system will behave as specified when you connect the controller to the real system.

Sharing Models

Simscape helps you make efficient use of your purchased software when sharing models that use Simscape Electronics. It also provides methods of sharing models while protecting your intellectual property.

Accessing Capabilities in Simscape Add-on Products

Using Simscape Editing Mode, Simscape users can perform many tasks on models that use Simscape add-on products even if they have not purchased the add-on products. These tasks include viewing, simulating, and changing parameter values in the model. As a result, your team can leverage advanced components and capabilities from the entire Simscape product family without requiring that each engineer purchase a license for each Simscape add-on product.

Sharing Protected Models

You can share Simscape Electronics models with other users while protecting your intellectual property. You can protect custom components defined using the Simscape language as well as subsystems containing Simscape Electronics components. Sharing these models lets other users run simulations, vary parameters, and convert them to C code, but prevents them from seeing the original implementation.

Simscape in Academia

MATLAB, Simulink, and Simscape are used at many leading universities. Educators can use modeling and simulation with 3D visualization to engage students with realistic examples and make classroom theory come alive. Using simulation, students can prototype in a virtual environment, which encourages them to try out new designs and to explore the entire parameter space. Simulation enables them to optimize their designs in research projects and student competitions. Because these products are also used widely across industries such as automotive, aerospace, and robotics, graduating students who have experience with MATLAB, Simulink, and Simscape are in demand by employers.